"RPG Elements" and the removal of roleplaying from roleplaying games
"RPG elements" have nothing at all to do with roleplaying, and in fact may turn off people who are actually looking for roleplaying in their games.
Remember D&D? No, not the seemingly infinite number of PC adaptations. I mean D&D, the tabletop game. Yeah, that D&D.
Did you know that D&D didn't originally award the vast majority of XP for killing monsters, but instead for collecting treasure? And that DM's were encouraged to award bonus XP for exceptionally clever solutions to problems faced by the characters in-game?
A far cry from more recent roleplaying games, sadly. These days it's all about "kill monster, get loot, level up, become gods". No creativity at all.
Perhaps it's due to the computer adaptations. You can't very well program a sentient DM into the computer, so that led roleplaying games to be redefined according to the limited palette of the early computer games.
Then you have the games that try to piggyback on the RPG trend with "roleplaying elements". Really? What does grinding have to do with roleplaying again? At least "games" like Progress Quest and Statbuilder (remember those?) were up-front about being parodies. "You are slaying lots and lots of evil monsters! Keep Clicking!"
Thankfully, not all hope is lost for the Real Roleplayer. Thanks to advances in computing power, we can now simulate vastly more combinations of scenarios than the early CRPG's (heh, crappages) could. Thus we have games like Skyrim, Mass Effect, and The Sims. And of course there's the tried-and-true tabletop games like D&D!
So what does the future hold for roleplaying games? I really don't know, but I speculate that AR (augmented reality) games like Ingress will becomes more and more popular. (Go Resistance! For humanity!)
» Tagged In: #d&d, #Ingress, #mass effect, #roleplaying, #rpg, #skyrim, #The Sims
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g1 DISCUSSIONS
PhoenixGames
Well said my good sir! My brother and I talk about this and many other subjects on gaming all the time and were thinking about recording those discussions while either playing video games or just sitting around a table. Really discussing "genre definitions" in a meaningful and philosophical manner.
Darkseid2
A bit short to really get your point across, mainly in that you're not being very detailed about your examples beyond D&D Dungeonmasters. You should assume that some of your audience aren't aware of many of the examples you site and make the message more clear with some more negative examples. Just a tip.
I like it when RPGs experiment with different ways to work in experience as something different from experience. I like how Sakura Wars does it, using the ton of VN elements as the deciding factor for the actual strategy battles with your team's mood deciding what bonuses they get in battle and how much damage they can do with joint attacks. There is no leveling up, only trying to improve your relationships with the characters on your team and thus making them more effective in battle through your earlier choices and actions.
ekolis
Funny you mention relationships. I was actually about to post another blog about male gamers vs. female gamers and their attitudes toward gaming, and relationships were going to play a role (heh) in that blog...